Papal Concern for Climate Change and Refugee Care
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 22 Jun 2015
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service
A Means of Concealing Criminal Systemic Negligence?
Produced on World Refugee Day — on the occasion of publication of reports on the world refugee crisis and an Environment Encyclical by Pope Francis.
Introduction
What is to be expected from the simultaneous publication of reports of UNHCR (Global Trends Report: World at War, 18 June 2015), of Amnesty International (World leaders’ neglect of refugees condemns millions to death and despair, 15 June 2015), and of a Papal Encyclical on the Environment (Laudato Si’ on Care of Our Common Home, 18 June 2015)?
Much emphasis is currently placed on the morality of a short-term solution of ensuring that current refugees are received by developed countries, notably those in Europe. Nothing is said of the expected numbers of refugees which can be predicted for the following years, or the decades thereafter. Considerable tensions are being engendered in developed countries as a result of this influx.
The Pope has emphasized a duty of care and the need for a transformation of hearts and minds to respond to the crisis. Prior to publication of the Encyclical, the consistency of that position was explored in an argument proposing that the Vatican issue passports to refugees and that refugees be settled in St Peter’s Square, in Catholic institutions around Europe, and in Catholic families supportive of the Papal position on unconstrained population growth (Issuance of Vatican Passports to Trans-Mediterranean Immigrants: a modest proposal worthy of the 21st Century? 2015).
The following section summarizes the world refugee crisis in order to frame commentary on arguments of the Papal Encyclical in two subsequent sections.
Continue reading the paper in the Original – laetusinpraesens.org
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 22 Jun 2015.
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